It is frequently the case with electric toothbrushes that one handpiece is shared among different users in a household so that corresponding exchangeable cleaning attachments, for example, attachment brushes, can be placed in a common handpiece and must be held in readiness for the different users. In addition, there are various cleaning and care attachments such as, for example, a dental floss holder for interdental cleaning, polishing elements comprising elastomer elements for removing discolorations from the teeth, tongue cleaners and other cleaning and care attachments for daily oral care which, even when the hand-held part of the tooth cleaning device is only used by one user, result in a plurality of tooth cleaning attachments which must be stored in the proximity of the hand-held part. In order that these additional tools and replacement brushes are not stored at different locations in the bathroom and need to be looked for or become dirty, various storage devices have been proposed directly on the charging part of the hand-held parts of the tooth cleaning devices which are usually operated by rechargeable battery.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,463,994 discloses a toothbrush charging station with an integrated storage box for the replacement brushes which together with the hand-held part is protected from contamination by a joint cover. In this case, the bottom of the storage box comprises a plurality of blind holes into which the attachment brushes can be inserted with their stem ends, which are adapted per se so that they fit exactly to the stem cross-section to avoid any wobbling around of the upright toothbrushes. However, due to liquid or toothpaste residue running down, contamination can occur which adversely affects the insertion and withdrawal of the replacement brushes. In addition, when the cover is open, liquid or moisture dripping down from the replacement brushes can run down laterally from the storage body or what is even worse, run into the hand-held part opening of the charging station in which the hand-held part is inserted for purposes of charging. A disadvantage with these previously known storage devices is additionally the drying of the used replacement brushes. Sufficient circulation of air does not take place due to the ventilation openings provided in the upper side of the cover. In addition, dirt and dust penetrates into the storage container via the said ventilation openings in the upper side of the cover.
Further, known are storage systems in which the replacement brushes are suspended perpendicularly in the air or are stored suspended in a type of rotatable carousel. By this means the problem of blind-hole receptacles becoming blocked by toothpaste residue can certainly be ameliorated, but liquid dripping down leads to unsightly contamination of the wash basin. Further, storage devices have already been proposed which include a mandrel on which the replacement brushes or cleaning attachments are placed so that the replacement brushes or cleaning attachments stand vertically on the charging part ready for gripping. However, systems having such a placement mandrel also have significant disadvantages. On the one hand, the brush must be threaded precisely onto the mandrel for placement which, however, requires a high accuracy and fine motor skills on the part of the user and is frequently difficult for elderly users. On the other hand, mandrel and replacement brush or cleaning attachment must fit exactly into one another, thus resulting in high requirements for the accuracy of the mandrels during manufacture. If the clearances are too tight, the replacement brush jams during placement. If contaminant deposits of toothpaste form on the mandrel, the placement and removal process no longer runs smoothly. In order to avoid removing the charging part during withdrawal, the charging part must be held firmly with the second hand. On the other hand, the replacement brushes or cleaning attachments wobble to and fro and do not always stand vertically if the clearance between mandrel and replacement brush is configured to be too large. Regardless of this, cleaning of the mandrels and the adjacent region around the mandrels is difficult since there is no flat surface which can be completely wiped and very narrow radii are obtained at the transition between mandrel and base surface.
It is therefore desirable to provide an improved charging station of the said type and an improved storage device which obviate the shortcomings of the prior art and hold the tooth cleaning attachments in readiness in an intuitively ascertainable manner which allows easy handling by the user and is at the same time, easy to clean and has favourable production costs.